People Who Led to My Plays by Adrienne Kennedy (review)

Book Reviews 581 characterization, content, theme, and fann among Shaffer's canon, including the detective fiction. His readings are comprehensive and fainninded: he identifies the weaknesses as well as the strengthSof both the drama and its criticism. His analyses of Amadeus, Equus, The Royal Hum o[ the Sun and Shrivillgs comprise the most thoughtful and persuasive writing on these plays to date. In the Conclusion, Plunka classifies Shaffer's protagonists according to the species of role-playing in which they engage, and he suggests a taxonomy of the plays' conflicts based on the emergent dialectic. The resultant schema offers an immensely useful method of approaching Shaffer's drama. One should not cease reading with the Conclusion. however: Plunka's copious, accurate notes are also worth attention. Note 6, pp. 223-24, for example, presents an extended discussion of the significance of the number 6 in Equus - the sort of material a lesser scholar would have inflated into an article. The book also includes a comprehensive, accurate primary and secondary bibliography and an index. Having of late been immersed in literary theory, I was initially concerned about Plunka's designation of Shaffer as " Sociologist of lbe Theater." My concern was twofold: first, Plunka does not define "sociological" in terms of current sociological literary theory; and second, most critics (myself included) would be more apt to deem Shaffer "Psychologist of the Theater." Having read the entire book, however, I no longer feel either of my initial concerns warranted. One soon realizes that Plunka is defining sociology not in a specialized way but in its broad sense - i.e., as Shaffer employs the concept - and that a review of contemporary theory would be superfluous. In the course of his arguments, Plunka also demonstrates thorough knowledge of the psychological criticism of Shaffer's plays, especially the work of psychiatrist Jules Glenn, whose analyses Plunka, like Shaffer, finds fonnulaic and simplistic. Plunka's examination of Shaffer's translation of dramatic theory into perfonnance is insightfu~ and convincing - though some readers may fail to recognize his theoretical sophistication because of his eminently readable, jargon-free style. His examination of the plays' multifarious roots (in the well-made play, in Brecht, in the Apollonian/Dionysian dialectic, in Artaud) are first-rate. His extended discussion of Maud's influence on Shaffer's development as a dramatist is especially fine. And thus. her end accomplished (though not by her means), this reviewer sets aside her Shaffer project and moves on, to fresh woods and playwrights new, playwrights of whom, she fervently hopes, Me. Plunka has never heard. LAURA MORROW, LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY, SHREVEPORT ADRIENNE KENNEDY. People Who Led to My Plays. NY: Theatre Communications Group 1988. pp. 125. illustrated. $9.95 (PB). The appearance a year later of a paperback edition of Adrienne Kennedy's autobiogra- 582 Book Reviews phy of her early years is timely; eight of her plays have recently been collected in a volume called Adrienne Kennedy ill One Act (University of Minnesota Press, 1988), and her play. A Movie Star has to SIal' in Black and White has been induded in the new Norton Anthology ofAmerican Literature (1989). This, combined with her muchquoted remark made in an interview a dozen years ago, "Autobiographical work is the only thing that interests me.... ," makes this book an important source. It is, however. curious reading. Written in unconnected snippets, one initially has the impression of listening to the reminiscences of someone who is wholly unused to self-analysis. The style adjusts sentence structure and vocabulary as it moves through time, so that the section dealing with "Elementary School" is simple and plain. This spares us any cloying, excessively interpretive version of her childhood, but, on the other hand, it is often too childish to be fully engaging ("Jack and Jill: Went up a hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after. What's a crown? I asked my mother. His head, she said. "). The sections labelled "Junior High" and "High School" are filled with adolescent gushings about popular songs and cashmere sweaters and lots and lots of "longing" and "yearning" for fame and for glamour. The last...